Keeping Chickens: An Environmentally Friendly Option

this post answers the following questions
1. How can chickens help by reducing carbon footprint?
2. What are the benefits we can get from keeping chicken in our household?
3. What are the foods that chickens eat?
4. How can chickens help in producing fertilizer?
5. Why should we stay organic while taking care of the chickens?

More and more ordinary households are choosing to keep chickens. In fact, statistics show that around half a million British people are now the proud owners of a flock, and are enjoying the nutritious and delicious benefits involved. Eggs and meat, however, are not the only reason to nest some hens in the garden. Chicken keeping also provides numerous benefits to the environment, allowing owners to reduce their carbon footprint as well as reap more material rewards. Read on to discover some of these benefits.

Reducing Your Food Wastage

Chickens aren’t fussy eaters. In fact, they’ll eat just about anything, so long as it isn’t meat. Whilst their primary diet will be feed and other specially produced chicken products, your flock will also enjoy the cooked leftovers from your dinner. Cooked food shouldn’t be composted as it will attract rats, meaning that your chickens will be the only viable recycling method. Less food in the bin means less waste to be processed by refuse plants and less rubbish left in landfill, so why not cut down on your feed bill whilst doing your bit for the planet?

Producing Fertiliser

Many, though by no means all, of the people who keep chickens will also maintain a garden. Whether you grow fruit and veg or simply enjoy the sight and scent of flowers, a supply of fertiliser is essential to give your plants the nutrients that they need – especially given that soil is often leached of these essential components by modern chemical treatments. Chickens, of course, will provide you with a steady supply of manure. You can boost your output even more by giving your flock straw for bedding and then composting the whole lot at once.

Cut Down on Your Food Miles

This is the big one. The majority of most British people’s carbon footprint derives from transportation, whether of themselves or of their food. When you buy your eggs from the supermarket, do you know where they have come from? Probably not – and the answer is, they’ve been all over the place! By eating the eggs (and, occasionally, the chickens) that come from your own back garden, you necessarily avoid consuming supermarket fare which has travelled a great distance by the time it reaches your door. Who knows – perhaps, if enough people follow suit, the battery farming industry will shrink due to a lack of demand.

Photo Credits:http://www.flickr.com/photos/noadi/3529744781/

Taking Control and Staying Organic

As you control exactly what goes into your hens, you can guarantee that your miniature farm is completely organic. The drugs and chemicals involved in battery farming are damaging both to the chickens themselves and the wider ecosystem. By buying and using the correct chicken products, you can be sure that your environmental impact is minimised.